Japan Not Letting Sony Bring PlayStation Back Online in Its Home Country

The slow, agonizing restoration of PlayStation Network and Qriocity may have finally gotten underway this weekend but gamers in Sony’s country of origin are going to have to wait a bit longer before they can play online with each other.

The Japanese government isn’t giving the PlayStation people permission to boot servers back up because they still have concerns about what exactly Sony has done to bolster security. According to a report on Nikkei.com, a government official says they need more information on the measures that Sony’s taken to administer secure services. An official press release from Dow Jones Newswires (via Engadget) says that meetings on May 6th and 13th failed to meet the divulgement requirements Sony needs to proceed:

“We met with Sony on May 6 and 13, and basically we want two things from them,” Kazushige Nobutani, director of the Media and Content Industry department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, told Dow Jones Newswires.

He listed two areas where it requires further explanation before approval will be given following the incidents regarding its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment videogame services.

“The first is preventative measures. As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference,” he said, adding that he could not provide details on the outstanding issues for security reasons.

The second was in how Sony hoped to regain consumer confidence over personal data such as credit card information.

Sony may be a global entertainment giant but its roots are very much in Japan. And it’s telling that the government in that country–who draw income from the strength and profitability of Sony as a company–still won’t Sony flip the switch to bring services back online. The release also mentions talks with other ministries in Asia, so it seems like other countries may have concerns about Sony’s strategy moving forward.